UN Approves US Resolution on Ukraine. Russia and China in Favor. Trump Receives Macron: 'The War Can End Soon'

A man alone in command. On the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine and of the talks with Emmanuel Macron at the White House and the other G7 leaders via video link, Donald Trump made it clear that his line for the conclusion of the conflict does not include compromises.

With all due respect to the French president's mission to Washington, the commander-in-chief made it clear that without Kiev's signature on the minerals agreement, no progress can be made, but he admitted that the meeting with Macron was an "important step forward towards peace in Ukraine". A peace that, however, the French president specified, cannot be a "surrender" of Ukraine: any agreement, he reiterated several times, must include security guarantees.

At the same time, at the UN, the United States snubbed the European Union by voting with Russia against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. A double tear to which is added the announcement by the American president that in the talks with Vladimir Putin, future economic pacts between Russia and the United States are also being discussed. The note published by Trump on Truth after the video conference of just over an hour with the G7 - without a final statement, at least until late evening in Italy - could not have been clearer. "Everyone has emphasized that the objective is the end of the war, I have emphasized the importance of the vital agreement on minerals that we hope will be signed very soon", said The Donald, reiterating once again, unequivocally, that for Washington the priority is "to guarantee the recovery of the tens of billions of dollars and military equipment sent to Ukraine".

The American president said the signing of the agreement "would be very close". In the Oval Office, sitting next to Macron, the head of the White House also claimed that the war in Ukraine "could end within a few weeks" and announced that Volodymyr Zelensky would be his guest in the American capital "this week or next". A meeting with the Kremlin leader would also be imminent. "I am in serious discussions with the Russian president about ending the war and the talks are going very well!" Trump stressed, also speaking of unspecified future economic agreements with Moscow and of his visit to Russia "at the right time", when the conflict is over. Russian and American companies, echoed Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, are in "contact" for joint economic projects.

As for Europe's role in the peace process in Ukraine, Macron brought to the White House the plan agreed with Keir Starmer, arriving in Washington on Thursday, which provides for 30,000 European peacekeepers deployed in the country to ensure security. An ambitious plan that cannot work without a "strong" involvement of the United States that the French president asked Trump for during their bilateral meeting without however receiving any kind of feedback.

"Europe will provide security guarantees to Ukraine," the commander-in-chief stressed, saying he was convinced that the Kremlin was ready to accept the presence of European soldiers to guarantee peace. Demonstrating that - beyond smiles, handshakes, jokes about "beautiful wives" and how musical French is - the conversation between the two leaders was tense, was Macron's abrupt interruption of Trump's remarks when the latter was talking about loans to Ukraine. "Europe is taking back its money," the American said before being stopped by the Frenchman who placed a hand on his arm.

"To tell the truth, we paid 60% of the total effort in loans, guarantees, grants," Macron corrected him, specifying that the 230 billion dollars in Russian assets frozen in Europe "do not belong to us". The French president then explained that Trump was right to re-involve Putin: the new administration - he said - offers a new context and new possibilities. Meanwhile, at the Glass Palace, another heavy break between the Old and New Continents took place.

The UN assembly has in fact rejected the American resolution that called for an end to the war in Ukraine without mentioning Moscow's aggression, instead approving the Ukrainian one supported by Europe that asks Russia to immediately withdraw its troops and return the territories, a move that the Trump administration has firmly opposed. A defeat for the United States that, however, has underlined its distance from the EU by voting against that resolution together with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other countries friendly to Moscow.

UN Council approves US resolution on Ukraine

At the end of a marathon day at the Glass Palace, on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UN Security Council approved a very short resolution presented by the United States calling for a "rapid end to the war" without, however, naming Russia as the aggressor and without referring to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kiev, as had instead been established in the Assembly, where the US resolution had been approved with these amendments proposed by the EU.

France and Great Britain, who could have vetoed the US resolution in the Security Council, preferred to abstain, paving the way for Trump's version. The text, "in its elegant simplicity" as defined by the American representative Dorothy Shea (the new permanent representative of the Trump administration Elise Stefanik must be confirmed by the Senate), was adopted with 10 votes in favor, none against and five abstentions (the European countries of the Security Council, namely France, Slovenia, Greece and Denmark, plus Great Britain) while Russia and the US found themselves for once on the same front together with China. The vote certified, with the realignment of the US presidency and the Kremlin, the new world order that emerged after Trump's election to the White House. "The resolution is a step in the right direction", said Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia after having twice vetoed as many amendments presented by the Europeans.

Thanks to the archaic rules that have governed the world's highest political governing body for 80 years, the outcome of the vote in the Council was different from what happened in the morning in the General Assembly, when the same US text was adopted with 93 votes in favor after being radically modified by three European amendments. And even if lower than the votes of 2022, when the yes votes in favor of Ukraine were around 140, the result was judged equally good by European diplomacy in the current climate of polarization created at the Glass Palace by the Trump cyclone. Another 93 countries voted in favor of a Ukrainian resolution supported by the EU: "This is a historic moment that will define the future of Ukraine, Europe and our common future," said Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Betsa Mariana.

Italy voted in the General Assembly for the Ukrainian resolution and also for the US one "as it was adopted" by the Assembly, with the EU amendments, said the Permanent Representative to the UN Maurizio Massari: "We firmly believe that the full implementation of the principles of a global, just and lasting peace, based on the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine, is not only in the interest of Ukraine and Europe, but also of all the members of the United Nations, since they are the foundations that keep the international community united".